WASHINGTON—The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) is pleased to announce the artists selected for the upcoming exhibition Heavy Metal— Women to Watch 2018, on view June 28–Sept. 16, 2018. Showcasing contemporary artists working in metal, the fifth installment of NMWA’s Women to Watch exhibition series features up-and-coming or underrepresented artists from the states and countries where the museum has outreach committees. In consultation with contemporary art curators in their respective regions, the committees created shortlists of artists who work with metal— this year’s theme. The artists and works for inclusion in the summer exhibition were then selected by NMWA’s curatorial team from these submissions.

The featured artists investigate the physical properties and expressive possibilities of metalwork through objects including sculpture, jewelry and conceptual forms. Inspired by NMWA’s own collection of silverwork crafted by women in the 18th and 19th centuries, the exhibition seeks to further disrupt the predominantly masculine narrative that surrounds metalworking, while engaging with the traditional distinctions between fine art, design, craft and decorative art, whose definitions are rooted in gender discrimination. The works in Heavy Metal—ranging from large-scale installations to small objects intended for personal adornment—are created from iron, steel, bronze, brass, tin, aluminum, copper and pewter.

Heavy Metal—Women to Watch 2018 is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts and generously sponsored by the participating committees in Arkansas, Southern California, Chile, Florida, France, Georgia, Italy, the Greater Kansas City Area, Massachusetts, the Mid-Atlantic Region, Mississippi, New Mexico, the Greater New York Area, Northern California, Ohio, Peru, Spain, Sweden, Texas, and the United Kingdom. Additional support is provided by the Clara M. Lovett Emerging Artists Fund, the NMWA Advisory Board, and the San Francisco Advocacy for NMWA.